Covers - Good and Bad.

LordEternal

LordEternal

Will You Remember? Will Your Heart Sing With Pain?
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Forgive me if this thread has been already posted.

What is/are your favourite song cover(s)?

My 2 most favourite are:
Still Fly (Big Tymers Cover) - The Devil Wears Prada
You Give Love A Bad Name (Bon Jovi Cover) - Atreyu

Basically, I love the first because it is a cover of a gangster rap song by a metalcore band, which creates a unique Gangster-Screamo-Metal-Rap-Core fusion genre, and sounds surprisingly good.
I like the second song mainly because I heard it played by Atreyu first before finding out that it was a Bon Jovi original. But the Atreyu version is definitely better.
 
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I can't think of a whole bunch at the moment. Right now, the song that comes to mind is Running up that hill - Placebo
It fit the mood a lot better, and Placebo is just awesome anyway
 
I really like the Superfly cover of Fleetwood Mac's Rhiannon. They give it a totally new spin, and although Rhiannon belongs to Stevie Nicks, Superfly do a really good job in covering it ^^

I also like the Stevie Nicks version of At Last, it sounds unique with her voice, but in a really good way. Beyoncé also sings a great cover of At Last.

Jennifer Hudson's cover of And I Am Telling You, is amazing, she puts so much emotion and energy into her performance! I can totally see why she won an Oscar for it.
 
I heard a cover of Womanizer by Lily Allen the other night and, when it's not sung out of Britney's nose, it's not actually a bad song, as Kelly would agree.

I'm also a fan of Muse's House of the Rising Sun and it was actually the first song I ever heard them perform.
 
Oh Feeling Good is great by Muse, I love that song, also Im pretty sure One by U2 is a cover and thats one of my favourite songs to, also Romeo & Juliet covered by The Killers, I bought the Sawdust album just for that...back when I had money to waste D:

Im sure there's more, everythings a cover these days, but those are the ones I really like :3
 
charliepanayi said:
Hallelujah by Jeff Buckley.
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I never understood that obsession...he has an awful voice and made that song absolutely disgraceful, imvho. <_< I think Kate Voegele or Rufus Wainwright's versions are much better.

I suppose I could mention Leona Lewis' rendition of "Run" and, while Wainwright's reminded me of Shrek, Jennifer Saunders' "Holding Out for A Hero".
 
hmmmmm

justin timberlakes 'cry me a river' that was covered by lostprophets and i love it, so much more so than the original, it just sounds better and i also think ians voice is better suited to the song than Justins.
PLacebo made a good cover of runnin up that hill ( i forget who sang the original)
Also the cure done a very very good cover of 'hello i love you' by the doors. Now im not areally a fan of the Cure at all but i love the doors but it has to be said that the cover is phenonamal.
 
Riku said:
I never understood that obsession...he has an awful voice and made that song absolutely disgraceful, imvho..
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Well if it's any consolation I have a similar attitude to the godawful Leona Lewis and her cover version of Run, so I guess the feeling is mutual!
 
Riku said:
I never understood that obsession...he has an awful voice and made that song absolutely disgraceful, imvho. <_< I think Kate Voegele or Rufus Wainwright's versions are much better.
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Grace is, one of, if not the best albums of the 90s and Jeff Buckley is a god, I've always thought Cohen's version to be poor and all others nothing compared to Jeff Buckely's.

All along the Watchtower is a superb cover, one of my favourite Hendrix songs, with a sensational solo, so that's epic win.
Hurt is also right up there, beautiful cover.
Joe Cocker does great Beatles covers, I don't think he is as good as the orginal, but She Came in Through the Bathroom Window does come close.
Led Zeppelin as well, Babe I'm gonna leave you is great.
Me & Bobby McGhee and Ain't it fun are both better than the original song imo.
SRV covering Hendrix is surreal, one of the greatest blues guitarists covering the best guitarest ever, pure sex, that one really.
I could go on and on too.
 
Riku said:
I'm also a fan of Muse's House of the Rising Sun and it was actually the first song I ever heard them perform.
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You could argue that House of the Rising Sun wasn't a cover, since it wasn't written by an artist originally.

charliepanayi said:
Hallelujah by Jeff Buckley. The John Cale version is excellent too.
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YES. And also Rufus Wainright's.

Mr. Brightside by The Killers is probably one of the better ones I've heard. I always forget the original artist's name and end up thinking it was Frankie Valli, but I know that's wrong.
Soundgarden did a good cover of Johnny Cash's Rusty Cage too. I can't decide if it's necessarily better, but it's certainly a good one.
 
Mine are:

Nazareth - Love Hurts
Metallica - Whiskey in the Jar (Although the Thin Lizzy version could be considered a cover as well)
Jeff Buckley - Hallelujah
Shinedown - Simple Man
 
lagunas dream said:
PLacebo made a good cover of runnin up that hill ( i forget who sang the original)
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The original was by Kate Bush. Personally I prefer her version but then I'm not that big on Placebo anyway.
Jack's Smirking Revenge said:
Mr. Brightside by The Killers is probably one of the better ones I've heard. I always forget the original artist's name and end up thinking it was Frankie Valli, but I know that's wrong.
Soundgarden did a good cover of Johnny Cash's Rusty Cage too. I can't decide if it's necessarily better, but it's certainly a good one.
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Mr Brightside is a Killers song. <_<
And Rusty Cage was originally Soundgarden. Though I prefer Cash's cover of it, I was actually going to include it on my list. :monster:


Nouvelle Vague are a really good cover band, in my opinion at least. They usually do covers of 80's pop or new wave songs, for example, Just Can't Get Enough, Blue Monday, Teenage Kicks, In a Manner of Speaking. Their covers are very unique sounding though in instrumentation and also female singers who have never heard the original are used.

I really like Eva Cassidy's cover of Fleetwood Mac's Songbird. I first heard it in Love Actually and thought that it suited the mood perfectly and fell in love with it. She also did a nice cover of Sting's Fields of Gold, she has a lovely voice.

Oh and speaking of Fleetwood Mac, The Cranberries did quite a good cover of Go Your Own Way, Dolores' vocals suit the song well. I don't know if it was released though...

Er... what else...
Sixpence None the Richer's cover of There She Goes is really nice.
Jeff Buckley's version of Hallelujah is one of my favourite songs of all time, and Grace is probably one of my favourite albums too. Rufus Wainwright's version was nice too, I like the piano accompaniment in it, but he's just not as passionate as Buckley. <_<
And yeah, as I mentioned before there's Johnny Cash's cover of Rusty Cage.
Counting Crow's cover of Big Yellow Taxi by Joni Mitchell isn't bad too, I don't know why that springs to mind though because I haven't heard in aaaaages.
 
i can't believe this one hasn't been mentioned yet,

CAKE - I will survive

and i agree with this one

LOST PROPHETS - Cry me a river

additionally, i'm pretty sure the animals had the most successful version of house of the rising sun and were the first to officially record it, but i could be wrong.

MUSE - Feeling good (unbelievable cover. much better than michael buble's version)

JACKIE WILSON - Light my fire by the doors. this cover really kicks ass if you like funk. it came out literally 2 years after the doors came out with their version. i like it a lot, but i think most people wouldn't...still worth a post.
 
Respect by Aretha Franklin, although many people think she's the original artist to the song, Otis Redding was actually the first person to record it. I haven't heard the original, but Aretha Franklin's version can't be compared to any others, in my opinion. Her voice is spectacular.

Also, I vastly prefer The Carpenters version of Mr Postman to the original sang by The Marvelettes. It's just a more polished song, and Karen Carpenters voice is just lovely.
 
John Cale's cover of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah. He really turned it into his own song, and everyone who's covered the song since seem to have used John Cale's version as their blueprint. None of them do it as well as he does though. Buckley's is much too whiney and Wainright's is just comical.

Deep Purple's covering Joe South's Hush has always been excellent. Especially the live covers Deep Purple mk. 2 did. Much more dynamic and ballsy than the studio cover by mk 1.

Procession's cover of Ozzy Osbourne's Crazy Train is another favourite. Very dark, slow and bleak compared to the original.

EDIT!

And Thin Lizzy's cover of Bob Seger's Rosalie! Phil Lynott was a great singer, and the guitarwork on this is just phenomal.
 
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Placebo - Running up That Hill

Definitely sounds better than the original (forget her name). She sounded terrible. I can't believe that was considered singing back then.

Was in The O.C. in Season 4 as they show us Ryan fighting underground, a few months after Marissa died. >.< Really went with his character.

Marilyn Manson - Highway to Hell

He really spruces up this song. It's a lot more fast paced and he makes it sound so much more dangerous.

Flo Rida - Right Round

I love his take on this. He changed the lyrics around a bit and made it a bit more naughty. >.< Love this version the most! Marilyn Manson actually did a cover on this from Dead or Alives original too. Though he didn't sound as good.
 
I feel that Florence & The Machine's cover of You've Got The Love deserves to be thrown in there. Her voice is nothing short of incredible, I think and she really managed to make the song into something else.
 
Anything from Northern Kings. They've done stuff like "Take On Me", "We Don't Need Another Hero", and hilariously enough; "Don't Stop Believin'". The best thing is, the members of the group are already hugely successful in other areas, so you can tell they're just having fun with this and it works for them.

And while I prefer Genesis' original; Disturbed does a decent cover of "Land of Confusion". "Shout 2000" isn't as good as the original by Tears For Fears, but as long as I'm mentioning Disturbed...ah well.

Also, there's an album out there produced by George Martin that has various singers covering Beatles songs. My personal favorites in the batch:

Come Together - Robin Williams (Weird more than anything.)
I am the Walrus - Jim Carrey. (PERFECT for him.)
Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/In the End - Phil Collins (He's got a great voice for Beatles songs, and this is no exception. I love it.)

On a Beatles related note; Ozzy Osbourne does a cover of "In My Life" which is good.

And speaking further of Mr. Osbourne, he's got a full CD of covers out there, and he's certainly good at picking ones that suit his voice. Fire, Sympathy For the Devil, Working Class Hero, and Born to be Wild (duet with Miss Piggy) are all worth a listen.

Mentioned in the favorite album thread, Pat Boone's got a CD called "In a Metal Mood" in which he performs (atrociously so) lounge/swing style covers of the following:

You've Got Another Thing Coming
Smoke on the Water
It's a Long Way To the Top (If you Wanna Rock'n'Roll)
Panama
No More Mr. Nice Guy (The sad thing is, I heard this version of the song before Alice's)
Love Hurts
Enter Sandman
Holy Diver
Paradise City
The Wind Cries Mary
Crazy Train (aka; the theme for "The Osbournes")
Stairway to Heaven

Finally, a guilty pleasure of mine in the covers area: Spaced Out, the Best of Nimoy and Shatner. That's right; Kirk and Spock doing songs such as Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds, Mr. Tambourine Man, and Both Sides Now. May your ears bleed :)

(Speaking of ears bleeding, who the hell ever thought it'd be a good idea to let Tarja Turunen cover "Smells Like Teen Spirit"? Ugh.)
 
Madaraki said:

And while I prefer Genesis' original; Disturbed does a decent cover of "Land of Confusion".
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TBH I'm not a huge Disturbed fan, but I think this is a very good cover :) It's really interesting to see this genre of 80's music redone in a harder rock style, and it says a lot about the original artist that their lyrics are still relevant all these years later ^_^

Some other covers I really like:

Annie Lennox- "Whiter Shade of Pale" (originally by Procol Harum):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3UMpBqzVW4

"Don't Let It Bring You Down" (Neil Young):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajn8_ayqRG8&feature=related

And (of course :D) "No More 'I Love You's" (The Lover Speaks):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MS1jAvCycCY

And a few other ones:
The Goo Goo Dolls- "Nothing Can Change You" (Tommy Keene) and "I Don't Want To Know" (Fleetwood Mac)
Anggun- "Life on Mars" (David Bowie)

The band Tonic also did a really good cover at one of their shows of "Go Your Own Way" by Fleetwood Mac; and I saw another band, Stir, do an awesome one live of "Crazy Train" by Ozzy :D
 
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